


only time will tell

by foxwatson



Category: Bill & Ted (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, First Time, Frottage, M/M, Post-Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, also head's up there's some mild medical anxiety in this?, and i am here with my first bill and ted fic a soulmate au, but i'll cover that in the author's note too, that's right it's me the guy who shows up to every fandom with a soulmate au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-23
Updated: 2020-09-23
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:48:05
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26608501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/foxwatson/pseuds/foxwatson
Summary: Captain Logan made Ted get a soulmate timer when he turned 16 - and Ted was basically just relieved when it was zeroed out, because it meant he didn't really have to worry about it. He doesn't know who his soulmate is, but he's not desperate to go looking. Bill doesn't have a timer, because his dad never bothered to get him one - but suddenly Ted realizes that seems like a most egregious oversight, and now that they have money, they should totally get Bill a timer.The trouble is - apparently Bill doesn't want one.
Relationships: Ted "Theodore" Logan/Bill S. Preston Esq.
Comments: 27
Kudos: 192





	only time will tell

**Author's Note:**

> am i even in a fandom if i don't write a soulmate au??? anyways, uh, hi! this is my first bill and ted fic, please be nice to me most excellent fandom
> 
> title could be from a lot of places probably but i'm pulling it from van halen's why can't this be love which i love to listen to as a bill and ted song because it causes me a great deal of feelings
> 
> in terms of content warnings - the whole soulmate timer setup here involves a minor outpatient medical procedure which is not described in detail, but it does involve bill and ted like going to a doctor's office and bill getting a little nervous about it! take care of yourselves <3

Sometimes, Ted finds, the most important things in your life just sort of happen to you and you don’t even notice until they are way beyond over. At this point, he’s kind of an expert in it, because it just keeps happening.

A phone booth falls out of the sky and he and Bill try not to fail their history report, and suddenly they’re like, the gods of some future world. They try to get into the Battle of the Bands and they end up in Hell - and all of it is way less active than it seems like it should be. Ted feels like he’s never doing much of anything, it all just keeps happening to him.

Some of the stuff that’s happened has been most triumphant, so he’s not exactly complaining, but it’s really starting to make him get in his own head about it.

Ted is starting to wonder if the day he found out his timer was already zeroed out was another one of those important things that sort of slipped past him.

His dad insisted that he get one, but had obviously been frustrated as hell when it was zeroed out already. He called it all a waste of time and money, but Ted thought the zeroes looked kind of neat, and he wasn’t too broken up about it. So he’d already met his soulmate and he had to figure it out himself, or he didn’t have one and he just got to chill - not that heinous, either way.

Dad lost his shit, though, which was how Ted had ended up at Bill’s.

“He just totally blew up on me, dude. Like it’s my fault somehow. Not that he doesn’t do that with everything already, but like, this one totally isn’t my fault.”

“The way your dad treats you is most egregious, we’ve been over this - but this is particularly bogus, Ted. You didn’t ask him to pay for it or anything, he offered, right?”

“More like insisted. Like it was gonna change my whole life or whip me into shape or something. Fat chance.”

Bill had snorted and kicked at Ted’s ankle where Ted had been hopping on his bed. Ted turned, flopping down onto the bed on purpose, and knocked his knuckles lightly against Bill’s ankle.

“Whatever. Not like he can do anything else about it.”

And he couldn’t. And Bill’s dad wouldn’t even get him a timer because of the way everything had gone down with Bill’s mom, so it was all pretty easy to forget about.

Maybe a couple of things would have been different without the timer. Maybe things with the princesses especially, who were most grateful to be saved from a heinous arranged marriage and most excellent fellow band members, but Ted knew neither one of them was his soulmate, and Bill didn’t seem that stoked on the whole thing, so they’re all just friends.

Which, honestly, is still pretty excellent. It’s hard to imagine that even if things had been different, they would have been any better than this. He and Bill have their own place, and their own bedroom, and Wyld Stallyns is a real band, with a real album - sure, they’re haven’t brought about world peace yet or anything, but they do get great deals on picks and strings and amps, now, which is still pretty excellent.

And maybe Ted doesn’t have a soulmate - or doesn’t know who it is, or whatever, but he’s got Bill.

“Ted, dude, you are most absent today.”

Ted looks up from his guitar, blinking as Bill comes into focus, and grins at him. “Sorry, dude. I was just thinking about some stuff.”

“Like what, dude?” Bill sounds genuinely concerned, which makes Ted smile a little more. Bill’s totally the best friend anyone could have.

“I don’t know, just - it’s like that thing you said the first time the booth landed at the Circle K. We have witnessed many things, but - I feel like it’s not until after it’s all over I kind of realize how much there is, you know. Or how important stuff is, until it’s already gone.”

Bill nods, thoughtfully, clearly really taking time to process what Ted is trying to say. He frowns slightly. “It doesn’t have to be gone just because we lived through it, Ted - but not just because we could probably take the phone booth and go back, either. We both remember that stuff, and since we’re both here, we can just remind each other if one of us feels like we’re forgetting something and - anyways, we wouldn’t be here if all that stuff hadn’t happened. So really it’s kind of like it’s still happening, because we carry it with us, dude.”

Ted usually tends to think of Bill as the smarter one of the two of them - he gets stuff that Ted doesn’t, and always explains it to him, he reads things out loud when Ted can’t seem to focus - but then every once in a while, he says something that’s just totally completely brilliant, like now, and all Ted can do is just stare at him in absolute awe. “Bill, dude.”

“What?”

“That was most wise! Did you get that from Socrates or did you just write that?”

“I’m pretty sure it wasn’t Socrates,” Bill mumbles, but he ducks his head and starts fidgeting with the tuning keys on his guitar.

“Most impressive. You should get it down somewhere! It would make for some truly transcendent lyrics.”

“You think so?”

“For sure, dude! We should find some paper.”

Largely, even now, their writing sessions tend to be more like jam sessions with just the two of them - but every once in a while if they feel like they come up with a good lyric, they try to write it down - or else they totally space it later.

Under the couch, Ted manages to find an old receipt, and he gets to it way before Bill finds any of their notebooks, so he grabs a pen and then shoves both things into Bill’s hands, grinning down at him. “Go on, dude! Before we forget.”

“I feel like I already forgot, Ted. It wasn’t, like-”

“Well it’s like you just said, since there’s both of us, one of us can always remember! So all the stuff that happened isn’t really gone - we carry it with us.”

Bill smiles, then, finally, just a small one, as he glances up at Ted in between scribbles. “Thanks, Ted, my friend.”

“You’re welcome, Bill, my friend.”

With that, Ted sits down next to Bill, still on the floor, but this time leans his shoulder against the amp, leaving him close enough that he can watch Bill’s hand move as he writes. He glances up further, to the friendship bracelet that shifts on Bill’s wrist. He looks at the space that it covers when it slides down, right at the veins in Bill’s wrist, just below his palm - that’s where a timer would be, if Bill had one.

Suddenly, Ted has a most brilliant idea.

“Bill! Hey, dude, we have money now.”

“Uh - yeah, some. For what now, though?” As he finishes writing, Bill sets the receipt and the pen aside and turns to look at Ted.

When Ted lifts himself up a little, leaning more on the amp, he makes eye contact with Bill easily. “So we could totally get you a timer if you wanted one!”

“For what, dude?”

“So you could know! I mean, if it’s like mine you won’t know like, who it is, but still you’d know you already met them which narrows it down a lot, you know. I mean - not as much for you because we already traveled through history and went to Hell and stuff, but it probably wasn’t any of those people, and you know it wasn’t if you still have time left. Like - hey did you ever hear that story-”

“Ted, I don’t need a timer, dude.”

It wasn’t the answer Ted was expecting, especially not when Bill cuts him off mid-story like that. “Well, duh, nobody needs one, but like I said, we could totally get you one now.”

“I just don’t care about any of that stuff,” Bill grumbles.

It makes Ted feel most heinous, most suddenly. Kind of like a deflated balloon actually - and totally dumb, because he doesn’t know _why_ he feels like that. He knows about all the stuff with Bill’s parents, and it is most reasonable to feel that way about soulmates when that’s really all you know about them.

Ted’s in pretty much the opposite situation, where his parents totally probably were soulmates before his mom died, and that’s why his dad made him get one. Plus all the usual stuff about how he thought it would teach Ted discipline or something.

But still - not really caring about timers is way different from Bill just not caring at all who his soulmate might be. It leaves Ted - worse than deflated. Almost kind of hollow. Kind of like the robot versions of them, like somebody could knock on his chest and hear that same kind of echoing metallic noise.

It’s totally bogus.

“Right. Well it was just an idea, dude,” Ted says, trying to grin to cover, flopping back down onto the floor and turning his eyes back to his guitar, hoping that since Bill is in a bad mood suddenly, he’ll just ignore that Ted suddenly is, too.

“Ted-”

No luck. “No, I get it, cause of your parents. If you wanted one you’d probably have one, we just never talked about it or anything. Sorry.”

“It’s not just - I shouldn’t have said it like that, dude. It wasn’t a bad idea.”

Somehow, it only makes Ted feel worse. “It’s not a big deal, dude. Forget I said anything. Let’s just get in some practice, see if we can come up with a melody for that song, right?” He stands up, goes back over to his original spot, and starts messing around on his guitar, fighting to fill the silence so Bill won’t keep trying to apologize.

Thankfully, Bill just joins in the jam session.

The music, like it always does, makes Ted feel way better - to the point he can almost forget the whole thing ever happened. The best part about actually knowing how to play is most definitely getting to actually play with Bill. Talking usually isn’t that hard with just the two of them anyways - Bill always knows what Ted means and never gets mad at him unless Ted’s giving him shit on purpose. When they play though - it’s so easy it’s like breathing. They go back and forth without having to say anything, harmonize perfectly - it’s most transcendent.

After the jam session is through, and they have something like a melody for the potential new song, Ted takes the first shower and ends up flopped on his bed by the time Bill gets out.

Ted’s all set to ask a question or something to try and keep Bill from saying anything - but Bill beats him to it.

“I’m sorry about earlier, dude.”

Ted glances over at Bill, at his furrowed brow and the downturn of his mouth, and then has to look back up at the ceiling. “For what? It’s not a big deal, now we’ve got a new song-”

“Yeah, but I just - I feel most heinous about snapping at you.”

Lifting his head back up, Ted sits up properly and scoots off the edge of his bed, closer to Bill. “I knew you weren’t mad, dude. I guess I just didn’t get why it was a big deal. And maybe I still don’t, but - my parents were different, I guess. If you don’t want to, though, we seriously do not have to, I don’t wanna make you, Bill.”

Bill shakes his head and rolls his eyes - but one corner of his mouth quirks up. “Ted, my friend, I do not think you of all people would make me do much of anything. But - I can’t even explain it. I feel most unusual about it. Maybe I’m just nervous.”

“Well I’d go with you, dude. I’m not gonna make you go by yourself but - like I said. It’s totally your decision, I won’t bring it up again, I promise.”

Grinning, Bill messes up Ted’s hair as he passes by on the way to his bed. “Thanks, dude.”

“Bogus!” Ted mutters at him, and he reaches out and catches Bill’s leg, gently running his fingers right behind his knee, where he knows Bill is ticklish.

Bill falls onto his own bed and kicks out at the space between them, aiming for Ted. “Ted, dude!”

Laughing, Ted dodges and ducks back into his own bed, feeling settled again - everything is totally back to normal - even though Bill is glaring at him, flushed, from the other side of the room.

“Fuck off, Ted,” Bill mumbles as he gets under his covers, even though he’s halfway smiling again as he says it.

Ted laughs some more, but shifts in his own bed, getting comfortable. Then he reaches out into the space between their beds. “Night, Bill,” he says.

Sighing, Bill reaches out, and they wiggle their fingers together in the space between their beds. “Goodnight, Ted,” he says, keeping up his end of their nightly tradition.

It’s easy, then, for Ted to fall asleep smiling.

After that, it doesn’t come back up again for a week. Ted honestly kind of forgets about it most of the time - every once in a while he catches himself glancing at Bill’s wrist a little more often, but really he doesn’t expect it to come back up. He figures Bill saying nothing pretty much is his decision, and the whole thing was kind of a dumb idea anyways.

Then one night they go to Blockbuster, and Marcy is working the counter.

Ted, totally honestly, really isn’t sure why Marcy works at Blockbuster, because it always seemed like she had money at school - at least, she hung out with the people that had money, and she was one of the girls that always gave Ted a most difficult time.

Bill doesn’t like her either, though, so with Ted holding all their tapes in his arms, he goes up to the counter alone and tries to duck behind his hair, hoping Marcy just won’t realize it’s him. Bill stays over by the door, looking through a bin of old VHS tapes.

“Ted! Is that you?” Marcy cries out immediately. “Oh my god, you guys are, like, basically famous after that show at Battle of the Bands.”

Ted lifts his head up and smiles, even though he doesn’t really feel like it. “Oh, yeah. Uh - hey, Marcy.”

“You know when you guys used to talk about your band in high school I thought you were full of shit, but you won that record deal - and you have that guy on bass that dresses up as the Grim Reaper, it’s totally wild. I just thought you would suck."

“Uh,” Ted says again, struggling to catch everything Marcy is saying and still just wishing she would hurry up and scan the tapes so he could leave. “Well, you know, we learned how to play, and - Death is a most triumphant bass player, so that worked out, too. Bill’s really the one who like, got him in the band, though, cause if he wasn’t so good at Twister-”

“Oh, Ted, I didn’t even know you had a timer!” She reaches out, grabbing his wrist, and her pink, polished nails tap at the first zero. “And you’re all timed out! When’d you get it?”

“My dad got it for me, when I turned 16.” Ted shakes his head, not sure if he wants his hair out of his face or back in it. “It was timed out when I got it so - I don’t actually know who it is or anything.”

“Oh my god, for real? Mine was the same way! That’s so wild.” Her hand pushes his bracelets further up his wrist and she leans in closer. “You don’t have any idea who it was?”

Ted stumbles back a little. “Well. Somebody at school, probably, if I like, have one.”

“Aw, Ted, I’m sure you have one!” She finally starts scanning the tapes, but then spots something on the counter and grabs it - it turns out it’s a pen, and she takes Ted’s hand in hers to start scribbling on it. “I’m gonna give you my number - we should totally get together sometime and see if we can figure it out.”

When she puts the tapes back on the counter, she leans up and over, getting closer again on purpose, blinking up at Ted with a smile on her face. She kind of smells like bubblegum but - for some reason the smell quickly becomes sickly sweet and makes him a little bit nauseous.

He fumbles the tapes back into his arms and slides a few crumpled dollar bills over the counter so he can quickly walk back towards Bill, and the door.

“Uh, keep the change, Marcy!” he yells back over his shoulder.

Ted walks so fast he nearly stumbles over the door frame on the way out, and Bill is right there beside him, trying to keep up.

“Woah, slow down, dude!”

“I just had a most unusual conversation with Marcy, dude, and I would rather not.”

“Most unusual how?” Bill asks, tugging at Ted’s jacket enough to make him slow his steps so Bill can keep up.

Ducking his head, Ted shifts the tapes over to one arm and shows Bill his hand. “She gave me her number, dude!” he whispers, still more freaked out than excited.

“What?"

“She like - saw my timer and totally freaked, she says hers was out when she got it too and she wants to like, go to dinner or something. I don’t know, she told me to call her. Apparently she thinks we’re cool now since we won Battle of the Bands - and while obviously that is most triumphant because it means people have actually heard of us and stuff - it feels most unusual to have Marcy suddenly, like... Wanna talk to me.”

Bill’s still looking at the number on Ted’s hand. He narrows his eyes and really looks at it, then looks back up at Ted’s face. “So she wants you to ask her out?”

“That’s what she said! I didn’t even think she’d remember me, dude.”

As they start walking again, Bill hums to indicate he heard what Ted said, but he doesn’t say anything else.

Ted, unthinkingly, spends the entire walk back changing out which arm holds the stack of tapes, and rubs his free hand on his shorts, just to keep them from getting sore.

By the time they’re back at the apartment, Marcy’s number is most thoroughly smudged, and totally unreadable.

“Oh.” Ted says out loud as he notices, feeling a little guilty.

“What?” Bill asks, settling in on the couch as Ted sets down the stack of tapes and gets the snacks from the kitchen.

“I totally rubbed off Marcy’s number. Not on purpose or - I don’t think it was on purpose? But I feel most heinous that she’ll just think I didn’t call her.” Ted looks at the smudges on his hand again, but can’t make them out at all. He flops onto the couch next to Bill and sighs, tilting his head back to stare up at the ceiling.

“But dude, did you even want to call her?”

Ted frowns and turns his head. “Does that matter? Wasn’t I like - supposed to?”

“Not if you don’t want to, dude!”

“Okay,” Ted says hesitantly, looking back at his hand, and then over at the stack of videos. “I guess if she still works there next time I can just - tell her I lost it? But she’ll probably get mad.”

Giving up, Ted finally rubs his hand off on his shorts again and watches as the numbers blur even further, becoming one long gray smudge over his palm.

“Ted, my friend - I think maybe you were right.”

Ted frowns and turns to look at Bill. “About what?”

“I think maybe I should get a timer.”

“But - I thought you didn’t want to.” Ted pushes his hair off his face, trying to make sure he’s seeing Bill properly. “Is this about Marcy?”

“No, dude!” Bill says - and it’s so quick that Ted knows he’s telling the truth. “It’s just like - solidarity! Then if somebody says shit to you, I have one, too, like - we’d be in it together, you know?”

“Oh - yeah.” Ted thinks about how differently the conversation with Marcy could have gone if Bill, too, was already timed out - if Ted already had somebody else to talk to about it. Then Marcy couldn’t have offered. “Bill, that is a most excellent idea.”

“I know, dude!” Bill grins at him. “I’ll call in tomorrow and set up an appointment for it and stuff - then if we do go back to Blockbuster and Marcy is there, maybe she’ll get distracted. Or maybe she won’t even be working next time.”

Grinning back, Ted nods. “Yeah, totally.”

Bill reaches over and shoves Ted gently in the shoulder. “Now let’s start movie night, dude, come on!”

“Yeah!” Ted hands Bill a bag of chips, cracks open a beer, and they start in on their first movie of the night.

Even after their conversation and the way that Bill totally made it make sense, Ted is still surprised when a couple days later, Bill brings up the appointment.

“We don’t have anything on Thursday, right? I told the doc we didn’t, but I probably should have asked you first, dude, cause I really don’t want to go by myself, that would be most heinous.”

Ted blinks over at him, thinks over things, then eventually just gets up and goes to check the calendar. There’s nothing written down - and if he and Bill are both pretty sure they’re free, they probably are. He nods. “Yeah, Thursday’s good. I wouldn’t let you go by yourself anyways, though, dude, I told you I’d go - I’d totally cancel if something came up.”

Bill grins at him. “Thanks, dude.”

“Of course, Bill, my friend.” He grins, and squeezes Bill’s shoulder as he walks by.

The days pass quickly, and Thursday morning, earlier than Ted normally cares to be awake, they pile into the van and head over.

Putting in a timer is pretty simple stuff, so they’ll probably give Bill some standard tests and then do the whole thing all in one day. They’ll probably be able grab lunch on the way home, even.

Still, Ted is glad Bill got them up early enough they had time for breakfast, even if it was just Pop-Tarts to make sure they didn’t get super hungry. Of course, Ted keeps snacks in the van, too, if they need anything else, but it’s also just always nice to sit with Bill in the mornings. 

It’s been a while since they actually had to be up before noon, since they used to work at Pretzels N’ Cheese, but they’d always wake up for work together then, too. One of them would make breakfast, and they’d sit there bleary-eyed and eat together, too sleepy to talk much, but not really needing to either.

When they get to the doctor’s office, Bill signs in and they find a spot in the waiting room. The music in the lobby is pretty heinous, and they both frown as they sit there. Bill starts tapping his fingers on his thigh, probably the beat or the bassline to a much better song.

“Are you still nervous, dude?” Ted asks.

Bill turns to look at Ted, then shrugs. “Not as nervous. But-” He seems to think of something, and Ted watches as his shoulders tense. “I don’t know. Maybe. It’s not that I think something’s gonna go wrong, except - well I guess what I’m worried about is something going wrong.”

“That sounds most complex, dude.”

Shaking his head, Bill stills his hands by clenching them into fists and then shaking them out. “I think I’m just psyching myself out, dude. I’m sure it won’t be that bad.”

“It’s totally not. When they put mine in - it was a little itchy at first but it never hurt or anything, and now I totally forget about it all the time. Except - like when other people mention it, obviously.”

Ted holds his hand out, closer to Bill, looking at the zeroes on his wrist.

Reaching over, Bill brushes his fingers over Ted’s timer. When Marcy had done the same thing just last week, Ted hadn’t felt much of anything, except maybe discomfort from the whole situation. Now, though, Bill’s barely there touch feels a little like a static shock - but in a good way, somehow, that leaves him warm and a little fuzzy.

“Are you sure it doesn’t feel weird?” Bill asks.

Ted shakes his head. “No way, dude.”

Still, when Bill lowers his hand, he ends up tapping again, faster now - and it’s more obvious that he totally is nervous.

Reaching over, Ted takes his hand to still it and squeezes gently. “It’ll be fine.”

Bill turns to him and smiles, nerves clearly fading for a moment. “Thanks, Ted.”

“No problem, Bill.”

“Preston?” A nurse calls from the nearby doorway.

He and Bill stand up in unison, and Ted holds onto Bill’s hand for just a moment too long before he remembers to drop it - Bill doesn’t seem to mind, though. He just stands still for a moment until Ted nudges him forwards towards the door.

Ted doesn’t really think to ask anybody if he’s allowed back with Bill, but apparently it doesn’t matter, because no one stops him. The nurse gives him a little smile, and he gets a seat while they take Bill’s temperature and stuff, and there’s another chair for him once they’re in the actual examination room.

While they’re left alone to wait, Ted watches as Bill hops up on the bed and kicks his heels against it.

“Dude, you good?” Ted asks.

Bill looks over at him and nods. “Yeah. Totally. You wanna play 20 Questions or something, though?”

Like always, they can only pass so much time that way, because they always get it in just one or two questions - but they have enough ideas to go back and forth for a little bit.

The music in this room is just as bad as the lobby, so once they run out of ideas for 20 Questions, they spend some time wondering just why all doctor’s office music has to be so bogus. Ted wonders almost if there’s just, like, a lack of music in stock at the office, and if somebody should just offer to write them some better music to pass the time with.

He’s about to suggest something like that to Bill - maybe like an album specifically of waiting room music - when the doctor finally shows up.

Ted doesn’t really listen to everything he says, because he doesn’t really feel like he needs to. He watches Bill most of the time, making sure it seems like nothing’s making him more worried, and that probably means that things are fine.

He manages to tune back in when the doctor says, “Alright - we should be able to go ahead and get you set up today, then! The nurse will be back in a few minutes - the procedure’s pretty simple - your, uh, friend here should be able to tell you a little about that, isn’t that right Mr. Logan?”

As he’s wrinkling his nose, Ted can hear Bill cracking up. “Uh, yeah, totally, Doc. Thanks.”

The doctor ducks back out of the room, and Bill bursts openly into laughter, leaning back on the cot. “Mr. Logan!”

“Yeah, okay, Mr. Preston, whatever, dude.”

“Dude, you should have seen your face, though,” Bill tells him, sitting back up with a grin.

Ted smiles back easily, still shaking his head. “At least nobody ever called my dad Mr. Logan either. People totally call your dad Mr. Preston.”

“Bogus,” Bill tells him, kicking out to try and reach Ted from where he’s sitting - but he can’t without him getting up or Ted moving closer.

Cracking up, Ted sticks out his tongue. “No way you’re gonna reach, dude. And the nurse is gonna be here in a minute.”

Still, as Bill gives up, Ted knows they’re both about to get bored again - and that might mean risking Bill getting nervous again. Looking around, he manages to find a pamphlet tucked in one of the displays, and quickly folds it into a little paper football so he can flick it at Bill.

They’re not doing it on a table, so there’s really no way to keep track of points or treat it like a real game, but it’s enough to keep their minds off things for a while.

By the time the nurse does roll her cart in, Ted feels that he’s done a most effective job of keeping Bill’s mind off of things.

The nurse talks quietly with Bill for a little bit, and Ted watches them, then tries to find something else to look at in the room - but finds that it’s still totally lacking in entertainment value.

“Dude,” Bill says.

“What?” But Ted looks over, and Bill’s expression has gone tight and nervous again. His shoulders are all tense - and Ted doesn’t need him to say anything else. “Oh, right.” He stands up and goes over to sit in the chair closer to the cot. He looks over to check with the nurse, but she just smiles at him, so it seems like it’s fine.

Bill starts looking at Ted, keeping his eyes off his own wrist, and whatever the nurse is doing. “Maybe you should have saved some of the distractions for this part.”

Ted shrugs, and smiles a little. “I don’t think we could really play paper football right now anyways, dude. And I feel like you’d be pretty heinous at 20 Questions at the moment.”

“...Maybe you’re not wrong.”

After a moment of silence, Ted reaches over and bumps his knuckles against Bill’s. Bill looks down at their hands, and then up at Ted’s face, and Ted just raises his eyebrows, asking without actually asking. As much as Bill didn’t mind them holding hands in the waiting room, he knows, too, that that’s still different from asking out loud while the nurse is in the room.

Without any hesitation, though, Bill takes Ted’s hand and squeezes it tightly. “Thanks, Ted,” he mutters.

“No problem, Bill.”

For a moment, Ted wishes that Bill’s friendship bracelets were on this wrist, so he’d have something to fidget with, but instead he just starts tracing his fingers over the veins on the back of Bill’s hand, hoping that it’ll keep both of them from thinking too much.

In the quiet of the room, though, they can both hear the nurse working, and soon Bill is holding more tightly to Ted’s hand, clearly psyching himself out again.

“Oh! I did have an idea earlier,” Ted tells him, looking up from their hands.

“What is it?”

“That somebody should totally make better music for waiting rooms. Like if you made a whole album - or if somebody made a compilation, then you could sell it and make everyone’s waiting experiences much less bogus.”

Bill smiles at him, and laughs a little. “That market does seem most untapped, Ted. Not bad.”

Ted grins at him, and nods.

They pass the time, then, by making jokes about writing or rewriting songs themed around waiting rooms, and making each other laugh.

By the time she’s done, even the nurse seems to be smiling with them.

“Alright, boys. I’m all finished. I have to go and finish up some paperwork and get you settled up - we’ll leave the bandage on while I do all that, and then we can have a look at it before you leave. Sound good?”

They both nod at her, and then they’re left to themselves again.

Bill finally looks down at his bandaged wrist. “Well, you were right. It doesn’t really hurt.”

“I told you, dude! Nothing to worry about.”

“Well we still don’t actually know what it says.”

Ted frowns. “What do you mean?”

“If I have time left or not! Cause if I do that’s kind of - you know, like what if it gets in the way of the band? Or it just seems kind of bogus, anyways, having to wait and find out, you know?”

“Oh - yeah.” Ted nods, even though he hadn’t really fully considered any of those possibilities before this moment. He had no idea that Bill was worried about that, either. “I guess you can’t exactly back me up with Marcy, either, if you aren’t timed out, dude.”

“Exactly,” Bill says, nodding, but his brow is still furrowed like there’s something else more complicated going on.

The thing is - when Ted had made the suggestion originally, before Bill had brought it back up, he hadn’t thought much about it. He still isn’t sure what bothered him about Bill’s disinterest in finding out - not really. But now Bill’s presented him with a much bigger problem. What if Bill isn’t timed out? What if they haven’t met his soulmate, and it does get in the way of the band?

It’s a most heinous train of thought.

Fortunately, Ted only has a little time to get caught up in his own head before the nurse comes back.

“Here - let’s take a look and I’ll re-bandage you before you head out. After that you’ll have to wait 48 hours before you can take the bandage off.” She looks at both Bill and Ted’s expressions and smiles, exhaling a little. “That’s two days. You can take it off by Saturday night.”

“Excellent. Thanks,” Ted tells her.

Carefully, she reaches over and takes Bill’s wrist in hand to start unwrapping the bandage - so Ted shifts closer to lean over Bill’s shoulder to watch.

Ted realizes he’s oddly nervous as the nurse takes the bandage off - and when he checks Bill’s expression, he’s not even looking. He’s turned away, and his eyes are clenched tight, like he’s waiting for Ted to look and tell him what it says.

When the bandage comes off, though - Ted just laughs.

“Dude, we match!” he says out loud, putting his wrist right next to Bill’s so they can look at all the little zeroes lined up together.

Bill opens his eyes, then, and looks down, and blinks as he looks at their timers, and their hands. Ted hears him laugh, and looks up to watch the way his eyes crinkle up at the corners as he grins.

“Dude,” Bill says, and he sounds relieved, and totally happy. After what he said earlier it makes sense - he’s probably relieved to not have to deal with all the struggle of waiting around to meet someone - but Ted feels like a weight just rolled off his shoulders. Whatever kind of bogus freak-out had gripped him after Bill voiced his concerns just disappears, and Ted feels light and happy and like maybe this was the best idea he’s had in ages.

Bill raises his eyebrows with a grin, and Ted grins back as they both air guitar.

The nurse laughs a little, and smiles at both of them. “Just let me get his wrist rebandaged and you two will be all set to go. Alright?”

Smiling, Bill nods at her. “Yeah, thanks again.”

“Oh it’s no problem. You two are sweet.”

“Uh, thanks,” Ted tells her, flushing slightly. He doesn’t check Bill’s expression in the moment, too distracted by trying to figure out what she means. By the time he thinks to look over, she’s almost done wrapping the new bandage around Bill’s wrist, the conversation is way beyond over, and they’re all set to leave.

“Call us if you have any problems! But hopefully you won’t,” she calls to them as they walk out. Ted waves at her a little - and then they’re back out into the sunlight and back to the van, well in time to go grab some lunch, just as Ted had predicted.

They go to Burger King, and then they go to the record store for a while, just for something else to do while they’re out. While they’re busy eating together, or digging through boxes for old Bowie records, it’s easy enough to just forget it all again - because Bill’s got a timer now, but he’s all timed out, and there’s nothing else to worry about. Other than making sure they wait to take off Bill’s bandage on Saturday night, the whole thing’s basically behind them. At least, unless Marcy’s working the counter the next time they’re at Blockbuster - but really, Ted’s pretty sure he doesn’t have to think about it any more. 

So he doesn’t.

Really, Bill doesn’t bring it up either. Other than when they take the bandage off, and his occasional scratching at his wrist, or looking at it when they’re having a jam session, it seems like it’s off of both of their minds for the next few days.

But then one night after dinner, Bill does bring it up, most abruptly.

“Ted - do you ever actually think about who your soulmate might be?”

Bill’s still over by the sink, washing the dishes, and Ted looks up from where he’s been scribbling lines in his notebook at the table. Even when he does look up, Bill isn’t turned around to look at him - he’s still just ducked over the sink, scrubbing at something. Probably where they burned eggs in the pan last week.

Ted shakes his head, reflexively, and shrugs. “Uh - not really, dude. I mean I don’t even know if I have one, right? But I’m not really that worried about it.” Then, for some reason, a thought crosses Ted’s mind that feels oddly like something just sunk to the bottom of his stomach. “Why? Do you like - do you think you know who yours is? Or you like - have someone in mind?”

Bill fumbles something, and there’s a metallic sound as a piece of silverware tumbles into the sink. “Uh - maybe, dude. I mean - I’ve just been thinking about it. Since I’ve got the timer and everything - it’s kind of hard not to think about it, you know?”

“Oh,” Ted says, most eloquently. He doesn’t really know what to say, though. He doesn’t know why he didn’t think of this as the natural outcome of Bill being timed out - that he might actually want to like, know who his soulmate is and go looking. It’s just that Ted never really thought about it that way - had always seen it as just an easy out from his dad’s bullshit. It’s not like that for Bill, though. That makes sense. “Well who - who do you think it is then, Bill?”

Ted feels most heinous. There’s a kind of rushing in his ears, and he’s worried he won’t hear Bill’s answer, but he knows this is important and he should listen. Slowly, he stands up and walks over towards the sink, picking up one of the glasses sitting on the counter and starting to dry it off by hand, falling into helping Bill just to distract himself.

“I mean I don’t actually know, obviously. I’ve just been thinking about it, you know?” Bill says.

“Yeah,” Ted says, nodding maybe a few times too many. “Yeah, right, makes sense. But you - said you had an idea? Is it like - is it one of the princesses? Or - did you wanna try talking to Marcy or - um - I mean I guess we could like, find out who else from school is timed out, you know, I think maybe they keep records at the library? I think maybe my dad-”

“Ted,” Bill says.

“What?”

“I think that glass is dry, dude.”

“Oh,” Ted says, quickly putting it up in one of the cabinets and then picking up another one, still avoiding looking at Bill for some reason. “Sorry. I got distracted.”

“I know, dude. Does talking about it bother you?”

That’s enough for Ted to turn his head, shaking his bangs out of his face. “What? Dude, no, it’s - I don’t know, I just never really thought about it, I guess. And I guess it’s just-” It’s just that he and Bill have always done everything together - but Ted doesn’t really want to do this. He doesn’t want to go looking for his soulmate when Bill is right here and-

Oh.

Ted fumbles the glass in his hands, but fortunately it only lands on the counter and rolls - the last thing he needs is to break one of their drinking glasses right now to make himself look even stupider. He flushes as he picks the glass back up and finishes drying it quickly so he can shove it in the cabinet. “Sorry. Um. What were you gonna say? About - your idea.”

But now the rushing in Ted’s ears is worse than ever, and his hands feel clumsy, and he doesn’t really know what to do anymore to distract himself - because people have called him dumb his whole life, but right now he’s really feeling it. How did he not realize that the whole time he just kind of acted like Bill was already his soulmate? Like, sure, they weren’t kissing or anything, but Ted hadn’t gone looking because he didn’t have to - but now what if he does? What if he was wrong, or Bill doesn’t think about it that way?

“Dude - you look like you’re gonna fall over,” Bill tells him.

“Sorry,” Ted says again.

“Here, come on,” Bill says, and he grabs Ted’s arm and steers him back to the table, pushing at Ted’s shoulders until he sits down. “Talk to me, dude. What’s wrong?”

Ted’s never lied to Bill before - not on purpose. He’s not really sure he knows how. “I don’t know, dude,” he mumbles, ducking to hide behind his hair.

“If talking about soulmate stuff bothers you, dude, I don’t have to bring it up. Is it cause of your dad? Is that why you never wanted to go looking? Cause you can just tell me or - just like nod, and I won’t say anything else, okay?”

“It’s not that,” Ted tells him.

“Oh.”

“I just - It’s just that I figured something out and I feel most oblivious.” Ted rubs his hands over his face, trying to center himself, and mostly just trying to stop freaking Bill out. He shakes his hair out of his face, and looks up to make eye contact. Bill is watching him, brow furrowed, just standing over him still instead of sitting down, and the sight of his face almost makes Ted lose it all over again - but he doesn’t. “You should finish what you were gonna say, though, dude. I think I just got like - dizzy or something, I don’t know. I didn’t mean to sidetrack you so heinously.”

“Dude, I don’t really know if now’s the time. If you have, like, stuff going on, this feels most unimportant.”

Ted clenches his jaw and shakes his head. “No way. The whole timer thing was my idea, so if you need my help, I wanna help, dude!”

“Right,” Bill says. He nods a couple of times, and looks down at his feet. When he glances back up, he scratches at his forehead, a familiar nervous habit. “Ted, do you ever, like - I mean, soulmates can both be dudes, right?”

The sentence is most unexpected. Ted feels his mouth fall open a little in surprise, but he closes it again and nods. “Uh - yeah, I mean I think so. I mean - I don’t think my dad thinks so, but - it’s just about two people who totally get each other, right? And just because most people are like - a dude and a babe, I don’t think there’s really anything different if it’s two dudes.”

“Right,” Bill says, nodding again. “So I guess I just - that’s what I’ve been thinking about.”

Bill is flushed, too, now, blotches of color over his nose and cheeks, and he bites at his lower lip, and Ted’s eyes are suddenly stuck there.

He and Bill have always been in each other’s space, bumping and stumbling together through any situation, pretty mindless of whatever ideas other people might have about keeping respectable distance. And Ted has always thought in passing, since they got a little older, that Bill was most attractive - but he’d just been so happy with what he already had, somehow the thought of anything else had never crossed his mind before now - at least, not like, on purpose. Nothing he couldn’t write off to crossed wires while he was jerking it in the shower.

“Uh,” Ted starts, struggling to find his words. “So - you don’t have a specific idea of who you think it is?”

“I mean-” Bill flushes further, and gets visibly nervous. “I don’t know, dude. Maybe.”

“You want me to help you narrow it down or something?”

“No, I-” After a moment of struggle, Bill shakes his head and rubs a hand over his hair, messing it up. “Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything, dude.”

“No way!” Ted insists, standing up again. “Look - there can’t be that many dudes with zeroed out timers from school, right?” In fact - Ted doesn’t know of anyone other than himself and Bill. He doesn’t know why Bill would either. “Uh. Can there?”

“Well - I pretty much only know about us, dude.”

“Me, too,” Ted says. He resists the urge to shuffle his feet, keeping his eyes on Bill’s face. He doesn’t really know what to say - but he wants to be sure he’s not getting something wrong. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying, Bill?”

Bill tenses up, and shrugs, just a little. “I don’t know. Haven’t you ever thought about it? I mean - maybe you didn’t. But since we’re both all timed out-”

“I didn’t think about it.” That makes Bill look away again, so Ted steps into his space and reaches out to take hold of his wrist. “But - only cause I was thinking about it without realizing I was thinking about it. Like - I never had to. I used to think, like, who needs a soulmate when I’ve got Bill? Right?”

That makes Bill look up at him again, and his mouth falls open in his surprise. Ted looks at his eyes, and his gently parted lips, and feels his heart speed up.

Even though he’s gotten his point across, Ted can’t seem to stop talking - forced to keep going until Bill stops him, or he’s reached the end of his thought. “But then even after I suggested you get your timer - like for the whole month dude, I just kept worrying about you not being - well. You know. Like I never considered you wouldn’t be zeroed out, or that maybe yours could be somebody else, but I didn’t realize I thought about it like that until - I thought you thought you might not be zeroed out, or that you thought yours might be somebody else. You know?”

“So you never thought yours would be - anybody other than me?”

“Like who, dude?” Ted asks, his voice breaking slightly.

“Oh,” Bill says. He looks down at Ted’s hand on his wrist, then shifts so Ted lets go of him and Bill can tangle their fingers together instead. Then they’re both just ducked together, looking down at their hands. “Ted - still - we have to make sure, right?”

“Like - how?”

Bill snorts a little, but not unkindly. “Well, we should probably start with kissing, dude.”

“Oh.” Ted looks back at Bill’s face - and finds Bill looking back. They’re close already - close enough that Ted can watch the flutter of Bill’s eyelashes as he blinks, and it’s almost like Ted can already feel the warmth of his breath. Ted nods, quickly, and ducks down so he and Bill are facing each other properly. “A most excellent idea.” He’s oddly nervous as he brings one hand up and places it against Bill’s neck, right below the curve of his jawline. “Uh - should I just-”

But thankfully, Bill leans in and cuts him off, this time with a kiss.

Their first try is an awkward press of closed mouths, and not anything particularly triumphant. Ted pulls back, just an inch or two, and licks his lips. Then he ducks in close and tries again.

He brushes his lips softly against Bill’s, still hesitant and a little nervous, but it makes him more aware of the rest of his body - of every other place where Bill’s touch is leaving him over-sensitive. The way that Bill’s fingers are still tangled with his, the way he can feel the stubble at Bill’s jaw under his palm, it leaves him restless and touch-hungry.

Before Ted can move, though, Bill’s free hand shifts, landing first at the middle of Ted’s back, between his shoulder blades, then up, squeezing at the back of Ted’s neck before sliding a hand up into his hair. Ted shivers a little, and as his mouth falls open on an inhale, Bill moves in for another kiss.

This time, both of their mouths are open, and the kiss is damp and warm, and way better than their first try. As they both shift and tilt their heads, their lips catch and press, and the drag makes Ted lick his lips again - only this time his tongue bumps against Bill’s lower lip.

Bill hums, and sucks Ted’s tongue into his mouth, and Ted feels his knees basically turn to jelly.

Shaking his hand loose from Bill’s, he finally reaches out and places both of his hands at Bill’s waist, right below the hem of Bill’s t-shirt where he can touch skin instead of fabric. He pulls Bill even in tighter, wanting to be as close as possible, probably closer than they can get - but at least close enough that their knees are bumping together and they’re flush from Bill’s shoulders to his hips.

Quickly, Bill pulls back, panting into the space between their mouths. “Dude-”

“Yeah,” Ted agrees, nodding quickly before leaning back in to kiss Bill again, another damp press of parted lips.

“No, dude, we should - let’s go to the couch or something - if you wanna keep going.”

Ted pulls back enough to see Bill’s face - he’s flushed again, red in patches all over his nose and cheeks, and his lips are bright pink and still damp - either with his own spit or with Ted’s, and that thought almost totally knocks Ted off course again. Bill’s flush runs all the way down to his neck, too - and Ted wants to see now how far down it goes. He leans down and licks at the hollow of Bill’s throat, just because he wants to and he feels like he can, and Bill’s hand tightens in his hair, making Ted whine a little as he turns to press his face against Bill’s collarbone.

“I mean, uh,” Ted says, trying to string words together. He takes a deep breath, pressing his nose against the collar of Bill’s shirt, and then lifts his head up again, locking eyes with Bill. “I mean we probably should, right? To be sure.”

Bill nods. “Most definitely - excellent thinking, Ted.”

With a hand fisted in Ted’s shirt, Bill tugs him over to the couch, and they both fall onto it more than they sit, scrambling closer again as soon as they’re not on their feet.

Ted ends up with one of his legs thrown over one of Bill’s, half in his lap. Bill slides his hands up under Ted’s shirt to tug him in by the waist, and Ted sort of slides forward, so he’s not totally holding his own weight. His feet are still on the floor, at awkward angles, but he’s got Bill’s thigh pressed tight between his own and Bill’s hands on his skin and Bill’s tongue in his mouth, so discomfort really isn’t the first thing on his mind.

His neck is twisted awkwardly enough, though, that he does pull back to adjust, breathing heavily, and Bill looks up at him, eyes dark and heavy with arousal, and then seems to realize how not ideal their situation is for Ted’s height.

“Dude,” he says grinning.

“Huh?” Ted says, still staring at Bill’s mouth.

“Come here.” With that, he shifts so Ted can sit back on the couch properly, then throws his leg over Ted’s hips and sits down in his lap.

“Oh. Yeah. Good idea,” Ted tells him, nodding. He puts his hands back against Bill’s waist and slides them up, still desperate for the sensation of Bill’s skin under his palms.

Finally, Bill leans back and takes off his shirt - only when he does, his hips tilt forward, and Ted can actually feel Bill, hard and wanting and pressed against him. He bites back an embarrassingly high-pitched whine and leans forward to press his face against Bill’s chest, fingers digging in against Bill’s shoulder blades.

“Hey, no, I wanna see you, dude,” Bill says, and he nudges Ted’s head back so they can look at each other.

His words make Ted blush even worse, and he blinks up at Bill. “Oh. Yeah.”

Bill’s hand lands gently at his cheek, and his brushes his thumb over Ted’s lower lip, pulling it gently from between Ted’s teeth. “You good?”

Ted nods. “Way better than good, dude.” He grins a little, and nudges his hips up, and Bill laughs with him, leaning in to press their foreheads together.

Any sense he had of being overwhelmed falls away as he nudges up, still grinning, and presses his smile against Bill’s. Both of them are still laughing a little, so to anybody else’s standards it’s probably a most terrible kiss - but it’s one of Ted’s favorites so far.

Bill bites at Ted’s lip, still teasing a little, and Ted leans up to kiss him back properly, moving from their teasing back to something with more intent.

After another thorough kiss, Bill pushes him back again - and Ted can feel, now, how wet and tender his own mouth is from all the kissing they’ve already done, and it hangs open as he looks up at Bill.

“Take your shirt off,” Bill tells him, starting to push it up Ted’s chest.

“Right.” Ted nods, but with both of them trying to take it off, he gets tangled up in it, and ends up giggling as Bill finally pulls it over his head and off of his arms.

Once the shirt is gone, though, Ted can hardly see, his hair is so all over the place. He can feel as Bill’s fingers move gently through it, pushing it back and away from his eyes, and neatening out the top. When it’s out of the way and he can see again, he smiles up at Bill, and finds Bill looking right back at him, his mouth quirked to one side.

It’s an expression Ted thinks maybe he’s seen a couple of times - but there’s something about it in this context that makes Ted’s heart speed up and do something totally wild in his chest.

Instead of saying anything, though, or making things weird, Ted just reaches for Bill’s arms and pulls him down into another kiss.

Ted slides his hands up over Bill’s shoulders, up his neck and into his hair, and Bill hums into their kiss and presses his hips forward - and that makes both of them moan into the kiss.

They break apart, breathing heavily, panting into each other’s mouths where their foreheads are still pressed together, and they both start to shift their hips more intentionally. Even through their shorts, Ted can feel the actual shape of Bill’s cock pressed against him, and it makes him feel lit up all over, like his skin is buzzing.

“Whoa,” Ted says quietly.

“Yeah,” Bill agrees, though he punctuates it with another kiss and another press of his hips, surging forward and pressing Ted against the back of the couch.

The longer they shift against each other deliberately, and bite at each other’s lips and lick into each other’s mouths, the more Ted feels absolutely certain they should at least get their shorts undone - so he reaches down to fumble with the button on Bill’s pants.

His fingers bump against Bill’s stomach, and he brushes them down past his belly button to reach the button and zipper, still too busy kissing to look down.

Bill apparently agrees with him, because soon their wrists nudge into each other and neither of them accomplish much of anything because they’re both getting in the other’s way.

After a moment, they both pull back, laughing, and unfasten their own shorts just enough to open them up. He looks back up and watches as Bill opens his boxers, too, and takes his own cock in hand. Ted watches as Bill’s thumb circles around the head once, and his mouth falls open, his jaw working, like a reflex.

When he looks back up, Bill is watching him, too, and Ted flushes as he shifts his own hips and opens the fly of his boxers, and his own cock curves up against his stomach.

Bill shifts forward again, and their cocks press together there between them, and the warm press of bare skin makes Ted moan again - startled and surprisingly loud in their quiet apartment.

Fortunately, Bill leans forward and cuts him off with a kiss.

As they go back to shifting together, they’re more breathing into each other’s mouths than kissing anymore, too distracted chasing their own pleasure.

Ted’s hands are pressed against Bill’s shoulder and the back of his neck, and Bill’s got one hand in Ted’s hair - but soon Bill’s hand presses against Ted’s chest and they both slow their movements again.

“Wait, dude, I’ve got an idea,” Bill says. He reaches down and wraps his fingers around both of them at once, pressing their cocks together in his hand.

Totally on board, Ted wraps his own hand around Bill’s, helping out, and then their fingers are tangled and pressed together around both of their cocks. They’re both looking down at their hands, ducked together, and Ted can feel Bill’s cock twitch in his grasp, but he can see it too - and it makes him push up into their shared grip in response.

Slowly, they both start to move, and in the ultimate indication of their shared rhythm, they quickly fall into one together, pushing their hips up and moving their hands in tandem, both of them panting out quiet little sounds into the warm, damp space between their mouths.

Ted is the first one of them to lose it, and he tenses up, hand squeezing as he works himself through his orgasm, feeling Bill still moving against him, too.

For one breathless moment, they both pause, but then Bill shifts, and his hand falls away, and when Ted opens his eyes, Bill has a hand on his own cock again, jerking it quickly and desperately, his eyes still on Ted’s stomach and his softening cock.

When Bill does come, it’s with a bitten-off whine, and he immediately tumbles forward, pressing his face against Ted’s neck and his shoulder.

Ted presses his hands against Bill’s back, holding him close, still basking in the feel of their skin pressed together, even where it’s now sticky with sweat and come.

“Bill, my friend?” Ted says out loud - and his voice is still rough with arousal and all the half-muffled sounds he’d let out.

“Yes, Ted, my friend?” Bill asks.

Gently, Ted slides his fingers through Bill’s curls again, smiling down at the top of his head. “I’m pretty sure we’re soulmates, dude.”

Bill snorts out a laugh and pulls back, grinning at Ted. His face is still flushed, his eyes still heavy, and his mouth is all pink and swollen from kissing. He looks so good that Ted can’t help leaning in to kiss him again, a softer press of lips.

They get distracted by each other’s mouths for a few moments, but then Bill nudges his forehead against Ted’s and pulls back slightly.

He nods, and his forehead bumps against Ted’s. “Yeah, I think you’re right, Ted.”

They both pull back and look at each other, grinning. “Excellent!” they say in tandem, and then they fall back into laughter, caught up in their own shared joke.

Ted knows they’ll have to get up and take a shower before long, or they’ll both end up feeling most egregious - but he decides he’s totally not moving before Bill does. Instead, he just wraps his arms around Bill’s shoulders and holds him close, feeling warm and totally satisfied.

For the first time since he had his stupid timer put in - he’s actually glad that it’s there, and all for reasons that would totally piss off his dad, which kind of makes it even better.

He laughs again, and presses a kiss against Bill’s messy curls - and he’s happy.

**Author's Note:**

> i hope you enjoyed it!! if you did, feel to let me know here or also i'm on twitter @eddykaspbraks, where i frequently yell about bill and ted, and where i would love to make more bnt pals.
> 
> just for the record i like klamsdf ACTIVELY plan to write more for this fandom so this will almost certainly not be my last fic for these two.


End file.
